The Northeast winter is knocking at my door again and I am truly not ready. I consider myself solar powered, and tend to run out of energy, shut down and just want to crawl up into a little blanket ball on the couch when the temperatures drop. The cold weather affects every part of me; from my mood, my energy level, my skin and even my hair. I have to make conscious decisions to not let the cold get me into a funk nor let it wreak havoc on my skin and hair.

A couple of things happen during the colder months that make are skin and hair feel more dry and tight.

1. We tend to drink less water in the colder months. Many of us can down a gallon of water a day during the hot months but struggle with just 20oz when it's below freezing. I totally get it and find my water intake drastically decreasing too.

So, I make up for it by drinking tons of non-caffeinated herbal tea. I easily get 80oz of tea in daily just because I'm always trying to stay warm. I also let my water sit out to reach room temperature making it easier for me to drink, and we all know hydration is a huge factor in the health and wellness of our skin and hair.

2. External hydration is important too. Whenever you're picking a product to hydrate your skin or hair make sure that the very top of the ingredients is water. Water is the only try moisturizer and it's very important to have it as a main ingredient in moisturizers.

3. Winter air is more dry. There is less humidity in the air which means there isn’t free moisture around to externally hydrate our skin and hair. Ever notice in the summertime you can jump out of the shower not lotion and your skin is still supple. But, if you were to try that in the winter your skin is a dry tight mess? That’s because the air is so dry that it's not giving you anything and in fact it's taking away what little you have.

This is where humectants can come in handy. Humectants are moisture lovers and will draw moisture to itself. Humectants such as honey and glycerin are great in managing the moisture balance but sometimes too much of a great thing isn’t so great.

So, I mentioned that humectants love moisture and they do, but they aren’t picky on where they get it from. It could be the air or it could be your hair! Yup depending on the dew points and what's going on in the atmosphere humectant will pull moisture from you to satisfy it greedy moisture loving self. But, if you use them in a proper way, they will pull from the air and help keep you soft.

In the colder months you want to avoid anything that will strip and dry the skin and hair. Natural handcrafted soap is the first step. Natural soap contains a ton of natural glycerin to help draw moisture to you. From there barriers are the best. I like to use products that do not contain water as barriers. Such as; thick creams, body frosting and salves. These create a barrier between your skin and the air, and do a great job of trapping moisture close to your skin reducing the rate of evaporation.